


Kuruk the Unseen

by BrotherCraig



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 07:43:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18960883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrotherCraig/pseuds/BrotherCraig
Summary: Kuruk learns the line between real and not is a blurred line.





	Kuruk the Unseen

Kuruk had the gift from the beginning. He had a thirst for knowledge that could never be quenched. He poured over tomes and literature in the twilight hours every eve. Whatever ideas he would learn about at night, would have to be applied and tested the next day. He was known as a trickster in town but at his core he was a scholar. What people took as foul pranks and jokes were in actuality applied experiments. His hijinx were harmless however and no one bore him any ill will. Usually the children found his eccentricity exciting and awe inspiring. The adults found him odd but charming.  
His love of knowledge brought him through countless histories, and across lifetimes of fiction. He read about the laws that governed existence whether it be science, magic, or religion. Night after night he pored through these texts. He read of heroic generals, tragic deaths, wondrous beasts, and much more. He gathered a grand understanding of everything he could. This slowly itched at his inquisitive nature more and more. Eventually he began to question what truly separated the histories from the fiction, the laws of science from the laws of magic. What decided whether something was real and what was false? He asked these questions to every scholar he could find. Most shrugged him off as an absurd child. How could he compare history to fiction?   
His inquiries eventually lead him to the head of a local academy. The chairman was outraged at the boys questions. The man decided to tease the boy in hopes he would end the child’s interrogations. He sent the boy off to the woods where there was rumored an elderly wizard living in a tower. Kuruk relished at such a thought. A brilliant old magician hermitted away in a tower getting lost in tomes and knowledge just as he himself did at night. With no hesitation he rushed out into the wood.  
He wandered through the wood looking for signs of human life. His tracking skills,previously only theorized from reading, unfortunately lead him nowhere. The wood seemed void of human life in any manner. It didn’t even appear as though the hunters from town came through this place. That struck him as incredibly odd. This wood surely fed his town well, yet there was no signs of any human intervention here. He wandered for two days, feeding himself on flora he had read of in his books. One day in his wandering he heard a growl nearby. Alarmed,he leapt to the nearest bush to hide. A fierce white tiger appeared before him. The beast seemed to stare him right in the eyes even though he was concealed in the foliage. The tiger let loose a fierce roar. Kuruk began to sweat and shake.   
The boy did not know what to do. Panic was slowly consuming him. He grabbed control of himself remembering that his knowledge is his strength. His human instinct to panic before such a mighty beast would not serve him well. He began to think about that more. This beast was not coming for him. It merely was presenting its ferocity, seemingly to scare him off. Kuruk had read of such beasts. They were not native to this region nor were they known to be hunting individually. The whole situation seemed off to him. He decided to muster all his courage and confront the animal.  
He stood and exited his cover. The tiger haunched back and let loose a fierce roar. It seemed ready to pounce but held steady. It just fiercely gazed at Kuruk. He approached ever slowly towards the tiger, never breaking eye contact with it. The tiger continued to roar and bellow at him until he was close enough to touch the beast. He extended his hand out slowly and gently towards the beast. Just as he was about to touch it, the tiger began changing. It’s brilliant white fur turned dark purple. It’s eyes exploded in purple flame and bat like wings began ripping from its back. The beast or demon, began to grow exponentially in size. Kuruk stumbled back in fear of the monstrosity before him, falling onto the dirt. The tigers jaw stretched down letting his mouth just hang open, revealing rows of dagger like, serrated teeth. It roared again but now it’s roar was more bass and thundering. It was not a creature to be reckoned with. Kuruk stared at it with fear stabbing into his gut. He would not let fear conquer his mind however.  
Kuruk had solved the puzzle of this monstrosity. A grin on his face, he regained his composure. The boy stood up and dusted himself off. The monster continued to bellow at him but to no effect now. Kuruk once again walked towards the beast with his hand outstretched. He went to touch the monster. He tried. His fingers slowly went through the beasts belly and the bellowing stopped. The creature evaporated in wisps right in front of him. Now where the creature had once towered was a small, frail, old man in rather gaudy attire. His coat was a brilliant purple with multiple colors splashed and swirled throughout it. He wore a daunting mask, tempered into the shape of a tiger. It covered all but the bottom of his face and his eyes.   
“You’re sharp young one...but you have much yet to learn…” The powerful voice echoed from all around. Kuruk was enthralled with the wizard’s masterful displays of illusion. “Come...Your lessons start tomorrow.” The wizard took Kuruk under his study for the next 15 years. Kuruk thrived in the fount of knowledge the wizard was bestowing upon him. Kuruk was quite the prodigy and his teacher quickly took note of that. He pushed Kuruk beyond limits he never thought possible. The best of all was that the wizard never shunned Kuruk’s curiosity and thirst for deeper understanding. The wizard encouraged Kuruk to question everything. “What is it that makes something real? Does the same thing that makes it real to you, make it real to everyone else?” Kuruk opened his mind to endless possibilities.   
Upon turning 23 the wizard summoned Kuruk back to the clearing they had originally met in. Kuruk stood before the frail old man, now a man himself. His lengthy raven hair flowed down to his shoulders. Over the last 15 years he had grown a luxurious beard, both full and soft. He was no warrior but he was lean nonetheless. He waited for the wizard to explain why he had called for him in such an official manner. The wizard stared into Kuruk’s orange eyes.   
“You’ve learned all that I’ve hoped you could. Though I have plenty more to teach you, some things should not be learned from books and lecture. My disciple, I challenge you. Go forth. Answer the questions you brought to me so many years ago. Answer them through your own experience. As a symbol of your accomplishments in the school of illusion, I shall bestow upon you this token.”  
The wizard presented Kuruk with a mask. It was a purple and black facade, shaped like that of a horrifying dragon. Where the dragon’s eyes should’ve been, Kuruk’s now glowed a bright orange.   
“This mask will be your power my apprentice. It is a reminder, lest you forget, that what is, may not truly be.”   
Armed with just a dagger and a vicious facade Kuruk adventured out from the wood. He would wander once more. He carried the same questions that burdened him so many years ago. This time though he would not ask for answers. He would find them for himself.


End file.
